How, I ask, was it "thought-provoking"??

Rating: 3/10 (12 August 2005)

People's average rating of this movie as around 7 out of 10 is proof that Hollywood's brain-dead action formula works. It puts asses in seats, and thrills them. No matter how devoid of any proper contents it is.
The Island was a huge disappointment to me. The sci-fi story wasn't taken seriously at all; it was simply an excuse for a meaningless, standard action movie. Sure, there were some cool scenes (which is the only reasons I'm rating this movie a 3 out of 10 after all), but there were far more laughable ones. Take the story. It had no depth, no discernible kind of symbolism, made no statement of any note, and was founded on gaping plot holes. Yeah, it's very popular to say that a story has plot holes, but it's less common to actually list them. So that's what I'll do:
1. The movie could not have been made without the clones having conscious lives. How did they explain the need for this? By saying that if they didn't have some semblance of proper lives, their organs would atrophy. This is bull. People can be kept alive indefinitely without a conscious life. Even brain-dead people can be kept alive.
2. The movie could not have been made without the rebellion of Echo and his generation, which was caused by their suddenly developing the memories of their original human hosts! How??? Never explained. Because it can't be explained.
3. The suppression of sexual urges. How was this done? Not explained. How was that suppression circumvented so the two mains could discover sex? Not explained.
4. The subplot with Jordan's human host being dying was never developed. A lot could have been done with that, but it was basically just completely ignored.
Those were the worst plot holes (and don't call them "artistic license" - they were purely commercial license). But there were more. There was a cool scene of Lincoln and Jordan fighting each other in some kind of video game. Why O Why didn't they use any of these fight skills when they were pursued by the bad guys??? Why smack a pursuer with a wrench when Jordan could have scissor-kicked his head off???? Of all the wasted opportunities... And also, since Jordan's human host was a celebrity out in the real world, appearing in a big public commercial and having been in at least three men's magazines, how come nobody on the street recognized her?
Much of the extremely protracted action in this movie was the usual baaad kind of movie action that's been done to death - oooh, the bad guy conveniently slips on some pellets! Oooh, the heroes fall off a skyscraper but miraculously land in some conveniently placed net! Cripes, that bleedin' sucks! I can't believe I'm even giving this movie 3 stars. It was the worst kind of popular tripe Hollywood has turned out since... well, since the last crappy action movie. Gah.